Hi everyone. What a great forum. First would like to introduce myself and perhaps later post on the London PNB site. <BR> I am a physician in Seattle and i am simply enraptured with ballet, both modern and classical. My other passion is mountain climbing, but unfortunately all of my outdoor friends think that I am nuts because I go to London two to three times a year to see the The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden ( aren't they fabulous )? Little do they know that mountain climbing and ballet aren't that dissimilar in terms of discipline and effort. Well, regardless it will be nice to chat about dance with everyone.<BR> I am a great fan of the PNB in Seattle, and am saddened by the London critics, but I think that they just are missing the point about risk taking. I would bet that the audience loved the show. <BR> The blizzard comment came up when about two days ago I was pinned down in a tent at 10,000 feet in a blizzard, hoping that my tent wasn't going to rip open, and I was wondering " why in the world am I not in London watching PNB at Sadler Wells ! Take care <P>------------------<BR>

Matthew, welcome to criticaldance!! It's delightful to have you. I also live in Seattle, am devoted to ballet, and interestinlgy enough, wrote an article several years ago comparing choreographing and mountain climbing. (my husband and I directed our own dance company at that time called LEAVING GROUND/DANCE). The article was published in the Summer/Fall issue of Contact Quarterly and was entitled "Dancing and Climbing Mountains: Choreographic Processes". I thought it was a cool coincidence that we shared these two proclivities. PS. Where exactly were you pinned down in snowy weather (as you mentioned), longing for PNB in London? (giggle giggle smile)

I was on a training climb on MtBaker for a Rainer climb in three weeks - unfortunately our group got more training than expected! Didn't summit and a few peopole got really cold ( ie hypothermia!) I am going to have to track down your article - I am just convinced that the skills it takes to make a really great climb are similar to those for dance, and maybe even in rare moments even as transcendent. And since I am no dancer I am putting a lot of energy into climbing. The only problem is not a lot of people kill themselves dancing .<BR> I am glad to find another Seattlite person on this website. Don't you think it's funny that for having the two of the three richest people on the planet within a couple of miles that perhaps the arts should be supported as least as much as the new football stadium ( sorry a pet peeve of mine )? I think that Seattle has huge potential for both modern and classical dance and hopefully over the next few years I will see/help it change - I think the talent is here, but as a city we should do more to support arts! ( time to get off the soap box and watch the fireworks ). Happy 4 July. <P> <BR> <BR><P>------------------<BR>

Yes, I agree Matthew. We DO need more private sponsorship of the arts. And the new sports stadiums are big pet peeve of mine, too. Especially since I live within about one mile of them, and have to plan my entire day around the traffic/crowd flow in connection with the games. Previously for the baseaball season, now baseball AND football...what JOY!!! If you are interested in a copy of that article, you can e-mail me at DinaMcDermott@msn.com.<p>[This message has been edited by trina (edited July 04, 2002).]

Hello Matthew - let me add my welcome to Trina's!<P>I know nothing about mountain climbing, but I just finished reading "Into Thin Air" - about the disaster on Mt. Everest in 1996. Wow - what a compelling book! Made me cold and breathless just reading aobut it. As I recall the author came from Seattle.<P>It seems as if the entire West Coast (I am in San Diego), with the exception of San Francisco, is really arts poor. For the size of the cities like mine and LA there should be much more available. The talent often gets trained here and then has to leave to survive. But, there's lots of money for a second baseball stadium - though I enjoy baseball very much - that we really don't need. <P>While things like arts and libraries starve.

In my travels this summer, I met a dancer from PNB, who will remain anonymous. She is now performing in London.<P>Basically, she said that she felt the company wasn't as well equipped to perform the classics as was the Royal Ballet. One obvious problem was not enough qualitifed men. And they were of course going to be compared to Royal Ballet, since they were going to be doing classical choreography in London.<P>That is all I know about the tour. But I think a couple of poor decisions were made on the choreographic selection front. It would have been safer (and more interesting to the London audience) to have brought in choreography not normally done by Royal Ballet.<BR>

Citibob, can you point out some of the pieces that you think are a "duplication" of pieces done by the Royal, as being currently done by PNB? I am not extremely familiar with the Royal Rep, and am curious about which pieces you are referring to.

I'm sorry. I misunderstood. You wrote: "It would have been safer...to have brought in choreography not normally done by the Royal Ballet." From that I interpreted that you meant some specific pieces that you were aware of.

I think this isn't the place to discuss at length the PNB rep, but I am puzzled by the dancer's quote. In answer to the RB point, as far as I am aware the only work that the Royal perform from time to time is Le Corsaire extract, but this is a different version with three dancers rather than the usual Gala pdd. it may have been better to choose something else, but it is only a few minutes long.<P>Balanchine's "Divertimento #15" may have been danced by the Royal, but not in the past 5-10 years to my knowledge. I would not be surprised if PNB danced it better given their strong Balanchine credentials. The rest of the rep has never been performed by the RB.<P><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited July 05, 2002).]

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